Rado

I don't know anything about the quality of the Indian University School of Medicine. Has anyone ever tried this though? I guess you can use any Omega 3s according to the articles but I think they specifically tested fish oil.

I can't link the news story because I'm a newb but you can google fish oil and binge drinking and you'll see what I'm talking about.

MycoolFitz

I don't know but i do know when I quit drinking (this time) I went on a strict nutrient rich diet and exercise program. My diet includes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as fish rich in Omega 3. So far (2 months) I have had zero alcohol cravings including not dreaming of drinking, a first for me. I think for me a more holistic approach to my sobriety is working out better than I could imagine. I don't attribute it just to Omega 3 but the whole package of healthy diet and daily exercise.

SomethingBetter

Ive taken fish oil and omega3 suplements in the past, I still drank like a fish. Maybe had I known this it may have helped like a sugar pill placebo, doubtfull.

I take fish oil and OPC3 (& others) daily now after quiting though.

SSIL75

I take it now and took it for a few months before I quit. I feel like it in conjunction with exercise let me see a glimmer of hope for sober life. It lifted my mood. But then of course I had to want to quit!

north

My experience is closer to SomethingBetter's. When I was drinking, I would take a whole s***load of supplements - vitamins as well as fish oil. If there was any subtle effect that reduced my desire to drink, I am not aware of it. All the supplements were being taken to optimistically offset the hangovers. While I continued to take them after I quit drinking (about 2.5 years ago), at some point, I stopped. And, I can't remember when or how it happened... it just did. Nowadays my diet is healthy and regular and I have little or no incentive to even take multi-vitamin pill.

serious

i am nearing a 30 day mark and so far, by making very similar changes in my lifestyle i am able to avoid cravings and actually any thoughts of drinking are now associated with all the painful existence i've been putting myself through for many years... because of drinking. i never want to live like that again.

EmeraldRose

Personally, I don't think there is any magic pill out there that makes you feel like not drinking. I think the magick is within yourself and your desire to change. I'm sure maybe things are 'promoted' to decrease desire but unltimately the choice is yours.
But I also say if YOU think it helps than it can't hurt. Getting your health back is a key ingredient in the continued success of sobriety.

Here's an interesting article on the fatty acids.
Alcoholism And Omega 3 Fish Oils

Froglet

Great replies. It's definitely in the mindset.

Raindance

I've taken O3 and O3-6-9 for a really long time, and still drank through it.

Soberpotamus

I've been taking omega 3 rich fish pills for about 2 months now. I quit drinking 13 days ago. Haven't really had cravings. But I'm not attributing it to the fish pills

For Americans anyway, balancing our Omega 3's and 6's is important (from what I read) because we get way too many of the 6's... and 3's help to balance out cholesterol and the good fat with the bad. So, that's reason enough to take them, IMO.

Plus, they supposedly are food for the brain... along with water of course.

Rado

Oh, I agree. Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting it's a magic bullet. I was just curious if anyone had any experience with it or had read it and tried it. Like, if it took the edge off or if it made no difference.

Soberpotamus

I bet it does help with cravings... I'd think so, since good fats are so needed by the brain... and I'm one of those who believes alcoholism is primarily a neurological disorder. It can't hurt anyway... Go for it.

Spawn

That's a new one for me.

soberviking

I bought a whole bunch of amino acid tablets and extra glutamine tablets before becuase I heard they took away cravings. While not bad at all to take , they still didn't stop me from popping them and still winding up drunk later that day.

Sadly I don't think there really is anything out there you can take that will make any desire to drink just float away. Comes down to willpower and how bad you really want to stay sober.

Soberpotamus

I've read about the amino acid therapy recently... did you take these short or long term? I'm thinking you need to do it long term to see benefits... but I'm not sure about that.

defyinggravity

My psychiatrist (also an addiction specialist) recommended fish oil as part of a plan to deal with cravings (obviously, there were many other parts to that plan - a crisis plan, my list of reasons not to use, people to call when I felt a craving, consequences to using, etc). He's very into the whole holistic thing (which is a bit odd to me, but he's the doctor!) and in addition to my regular psychiatric medications, he's got me on all these vitamins and stuff. If you're interested in a holistic approach, maybe find an addiction specialist who is into this whole "mind-body medicine" thing.

kiki5711

I've been taking two tablespoons of Flexseed oil for several years now. It is good for you and has all those Omega things and amino stuff, but I don't think it will take away your cravings.

I believe cravings are 80% habit/mental/emotional addiction. Because the physical part can be overcome withing weeks, the mental addiction can take a life time.

soberviking

Exactly. I don't really have any physical cravings for it right now. But I still catch myself plenty of times mentally obsessing over it, remembering the fun good old days of it or just how relaxing it was to come home from a hard night at work and cracking open a couple. Times like that I got to remember the trail of destruction left, debt I've ran up, broken relationships and that hollow dead feeling I felt inside to help snap me out it.

soberviking

It was pretty much the same formula I read up in 7 weeks to sobriety. Been several years since I tried that approach and probably was sober for 3-4 weeks then. And while I have no doubt they are good for you and help repair some of the damage us drunks have done to ourselves it still can't take away the mental obsession over drinking. That I'm hoping is only something time can cure.

defyinggravity

I've done a little bit of looking into this since posting this morning because my profession affords me access to the actual scientific articles demonstrating evidence for what Omega-3s do in the brain and how they affect various processes like addiction and mental health.

From what I gathered, there's some animal work showing positive effects of Omega-3s in both bipolar and alcoholism. Scientists are able to create genetic strains of animals that are prone to alcoholism - and with Omega-3s, these mice consume much less alcohol than controls who did not have the Omega-3 and this effect has been replicated in other models (ie, they've seen it happen over and over again so the first effect was not just a fluke). There's actually quite an interesting body of research supporting this and I have to look into it a little further to see but it looks pretty promising on the research end of it. Omega-3s support brain health overall and are just generally good for you. Naturally, you want to talk with a doctor about adding supplements, etc (just to throw that disclaimer in there as this is not medical advice and all medical advice should come from a physician) but from my end of things - the research and evidence look pretty good for supporting the claim that Omega-3 fatty acids can help with reducing alcohol cravings or at least consumption in alcoholism-prone animals.

Of course one would want a strong program of recovery (whatever your choice of recovery support/program may be) to combat the psychological side of things because this is certainly not a magic craving eliminator and there's a large aspect of this that is psychological and situational rather than physiological.